


Behind Blue Eyes

by Ithinkwehaveanemergency



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Anxiety, Awkward Conversations, Blind Character, First Meetings, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 20:56:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20442413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ithinkwehaveanemergency/pseuds/Ithinkwehaveanemergency
Summary: Liam just wanted to down a few beers and work on his thesis paper.  Thats it.  Not fall for a guitar playing man with an intruiging voice he can't tear his eyes off of and he's never even spoken to.But he's not about to let himself get in his own way because he justknowsthat this man could be the best thing thats ever happened to him.





	Behind Blue Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> This story is loosely based on real life events, but I am *not* the blind character in this story, that is based on a close friend and this is written as an outsider's prespective.
> 
> Also, this is my 100th fic, so i resurrected this previously unshared fic, since I felt it would be appropriate for this milestone to be respresented by the fandom I am closest with.
> 
> So here you guys go! Fic #100!

_ "And if I swallow anything evil _ __   
_ Put your finger down my throat _ __   
_ And if I shiver, please give me a blanket _ __   
__ Keep me warm, let me wear your coat"   
  
Liam watched the man strum his guitar slowly. He seemed to sing the words absently. And his steady gaze never strayed from the sunset in front of him.   
  
Liam sat just inside the open-plan bar, his books strewn in front of him, sipping on a beer. He had been trying to make a dent in his thesis paper for well over an hour when a voice had started accompanying the gentle guitar playing that had been going on since Liam arrived.   
  
Liam had looked up and regarded the man in board shorts who had been sitting on the cobblestone wall, facing the beach, playing soothing music for the near empty establishment, and anyone who happened to stroll by along the sand.   
  
The musician couldn't have been more than a couple years older than Liam, but his skin was tanned and slightly wrinkled around the eyes, at least from what Liam could tell. He wore black opal wayfarers and a similarly colorful snapback. His white t-shirt was loose fitting and worn to the point where small holes had formed near the seams, making him blend in with the masses of weathered, beautiful, carefree people who made up the California city of Laguna Beach.   
  
But while Liam hadn't had noticed him before, something about his voice made him unable to look away once he started singing.   
  
It was almost as if the man didn't realize he had an audience. Like he thought it was just him, talking to himself. He was just having a musical conversation with the ether, enjoying the slight reprieve from the day's harsh sun, as the two hour long sunset began.   
  
Liam realized he'd been staring for quite some time, but the man never noticed, never made the quarter turn toward the inside of the building. He stayed exactly put, back against the concrete of the adjoined building, sandaled feet up on the stone wall, guitar propped lazily in his lap, staring straight ahead as he sang the soft, melancholy song up to its angst-filled close.   
  
"Hey bro. How's the studying?" Liam's server appeared at his side, and the guitar-player startled a bit. So, he had forgotten there was anyone else there. Liam looked up at the young, attractive black man who'd been bringing him beers. "I'm actually off, but don't feel rushed to close out. My relief is inside, his name is Corey, he'll help you out for the rest of the afternoon. Good luck with uh... whatever this is."   
  
The server gestured to Liam's books, which he'd forgotten in favor of listening to the enchanting voice of the handsome hipster troubadour.   
  
"Uh. Thanks." Liam stumbled over his words as he tried not to look back at the guy sitting on the wall, who was now facing them, his legs hanging over the edge. "I have a thesis paper. But yeah, thanks, man."   
  
"No prob." Mason, Liam recalled from when he first came up to serve Liam, smiled genuinely. "Later, man. Don't work too hard."   
  
Mason walked up to the guy on the wall and muttered something to low for Liam to hear. The guy quirked the side of his mouth in a half hearted smile and hopped off the wall, holding his hand out. Mason held his elbow out and the guy grabbed it, walking with Mason out the patio gate, his guitar gripped tightly by the neck.   
  
Liam's mouth turned down at the corners, strangely disappointed. He watched Mason start telling some animated story. Waving his free arm and getting a light laugh out of the musician hanging off his other.   
  
Liam watched them until they disappeared so far down the boardwalk he could no longer tell them from the rest of the people strolling around the crowded city.   
  
*****   
  
"What's up with you, man?" Stiles leaned against the door frame to Liam’s room.

Liam was shoving his laptop and notebook into his backpack, getting ready to go to the bar for some study time. He looked up at his roommate with a confused frown.

“What do you mean?” Liam zipped up his old, ratty jansport and slung it onto his shoulders. He pulled his hoodie up over his unkempt hair and grabbed his house keys.

“Where do you go?” Stiles stepped out of his way as Liam made his way to the kitchen. “Your car hasn't moved in like four days, but you're not home either, and then when I get off work you're in bed.”

Stiles followed closely behind despite Liam’s obvious reluctance to answer the question. Liam finished filling up his Hydroflask at the fridge and ducked around Stiles, who had perched himself at the head of the kitchen table.

“I'll see you at the competition tomorrow. What time is yours and Scott’s first heat?” Liam knelt by the door, tying his shoes and looking up at Stiles.

“Nine. But Nolan's is at eight. Hot shot and whatnot.” Stiles answered with a huff. He turned in his chair, staring at his life-long friend with a contemplative glance. “Is something wrong with the beamer? Do you need a ride tomorrow?”

“It's fine.” Liam sighed, standing and pulling down his shirt where it had ridden up from the drag of his backpack as he stood. “I'll see you after your heat. There's no way I'm getting up before seven on a Saturday, bro. Nolan won't even notice. He’s probably too nervous about his first big competition.”

“Which he is gonna crush. He's way too good for scaled, it's almost cheating. He's only there because he's new.” Stiles laughed. “We’re just glad you're coming. We miss you, dude. Everyone asks about you.”

“Yeah, I know. I'll be back to normal as soon as I'm done with school.” Liam smiled sadly and exited the house, shutting the front door behind him. He approached his fully functional BMW, opening the trunk and pulling out his longboard. He shut the trunk and let the board fall to the ground, stepping on and pushing forward, ready to coast down the steep hills of Laguna Beach.

*****

The guitar toting young man from the last few days wasn't there when Liam took his  _ regular  _ seat in the bar.

Liam sat down to work at his paper, in unfamiliar silence. After an hour, he got surprisingly close to where he wanted to be with it, especially without the distraction of a beautiful singer.

He nodded in thanks when his usual server, Mason, set a replacement beer in front of Liam's empty one.

"He's not coming today."

Liam glanced up in confusion. Mason smirked knowingly.

"Theo. My roommate." Mason supplied with a laugh. "The dude you spend half your day staring at instead of working."

Liam sputtered out nonsensical protests, feeling his face bright red.

"Yo, it's cool. He's hot. Got a killer voice. Everyone stares." Mason shook his head at Liam fondly. "I just don't think he's distracted anyone from a thesis paper for a week straight before. That's a new one."

"Sorry." Liam frowned down at his keyboard. "You probably think I'm such a weirdo. I swear I'm not like… stalking him."

Mason laughed at the defensive plea, loud and hearty.

"Dude, it's adorable, don't worry. He's flattered." Mason sat down in the chair next to Liam and leaned on the table. "Look, you seem like a really nice guy. Corey and I are pretty protective of Theo, considering everything he's been through, but we know he could definitely get out more and make more…  _ friends _ . You could hang with us sometime. We're going to the Crossfit DP competition this weekend. You're friends with the owner, Scott, yeah? Corey recognized you the other day."

"Yeah." Liam squinted at Mason. "You go there?"

"Nah. My boyfriend Corey does. He was your server after I left the other day."

Liam nodded, recalling how he thought the brunette had looked vaguely familiar.

"I'll be there. For the after party BBQ at least." Liam smiled at Mason. "Free food is always worth it. But like… you're sure he doesn't think I'm a creep?"

"I mean, he doesn't know exactly how much you stare at him." Mason laughed as he stood to tend to his other neglected tables. "I've told him you're cute though. Not that he would care if you weren't, but he misses checking out hot guys, so I know he likes to hear that the dude scoping him out is a solid eight, maybe  _ nine _ ."

"Thanks?" Liam frowned and then smiled and then frowned again, making the other man laugh again.

"No prob. And you are kind of his type." Mason shrugged. "Maybe he would've thought you were a ten, back when he could see."

*****

Liam walked into the house to find Scott preparing dinner in their kitchen.

"Hey buddy." Scott beamed at him excitedly. Liam smiled, despite the churning in his stomach and the way his friend was always such a puppy dog.

"You excited for the competition tomorrow?" Liam sat down at the island across from where Scott was washing vegetables.

"Always, man." Scott winked. "Always love a good gathering of any kind."

Liam watched him work in silence for a bit before speaking up, word vomiting out the story of Liam's entire week, ending with the thing that had been eating at him the entire walk home.

"I have a crush on a blind guy I've never even  _ talked _ to before and I'm terrified to hang out with him at your event because I'm 26 and a walking disaster who hasn't ever been in a relationship before and how do I have anything to offer to a guy that can't even see me?!"

Scott stared at Liam across the kitchen with the same dopey smile he always donned.

"Liam." Scott quirked his head to the side. "My uncle is blind. He loves you, right? It'll be okay."

Scott turned around to continue cooking, whistling a happy tune. Liam gaped at the man's ability to continue on as if Liam hadn't just had a loud hysterical breakdown in his kitchen.

"What Scott means is…" Stiles sighed, walking into the kitchen and grabbing a beer from the fridge. "You're an idiot. We know Theo. That asshole will like you just fine. You could've told us you were into him. We would've introduced you. Actually,  _ no _ . We  _ wouldn't _ have. Because then I'd have to be around him more often. Which I don't want to do. I hate that guy."

"He's lying." Scott rolled his eyes and pointed a paring knife at Stiles. "You shouldn't be drinking that before a competition!"

"I'm not lying. I don't know why everyone loves the guy. I've hated him since before he was blind." Stiles sneered. "Can't stand him."

"They dated. When we were  _ fourteen _ ." Scott groaned at his best friend.

Liam frowned at them in confusion.

"Why didn't I ever meet him?"

"You moved away right before he moved here. And when he and Stiles had a falling out, we all grew apart. And then after the accident, he was held back and we stopped hanging out with him." Scott shrugged. "But we  _ are _ friends. And he  _ is  _ a good guy. Stiles is just a douchebag and won't let it go that he got dumped. Even though Theo did it because Stiles was obnoxiously in love with this upperclassman and it was  _ totally justified _ ."

"Whatever." Stiles huffed and walked away, still drinking his beer.

Liam shook his head, feeling a bit better despite his friends not being helpful with his issues in any way.

*****

Liam sat at a picnic bench, facing Theo as the man told the story about how he and Corey met in physical therapy.

They met up as a group and Liam had been timid, probably awkwardly quiet, but he couldn't figure out how to make himself stop. Corey's final heat was announced and Mason had gone to watch his boyfriend finish off the competition, leaving Liam and Theo alone.

"Corey sounds surprisingly obnoxious." Liam joked nervously as Theo finished the story.

"You're friends with Stiles and he's  _ extremely _ obnoxious, so you'll probably get along fine."

Liam just nodded and smiled before realizing that Theo couldn't see him and blurting out an awkward, aborted, "Yeah!"

"You know, when Mason said you were into me, I kind of figured you'd… y'know… talk to me or like... try to touch me or something that someone who is interested in someone does." Theo chuckled awkwardly. "Did Stiles say something about me or something? Because, you know he's being ridic-"

"Sorry! I, um… I don't know why I'm being so weird? Honestly, I… I didn't know." Liam scratched his head and looked at his companion. The man was frowning, deep and concerned. "I didn't know you were blind. You uh… you always had sunglasses on. I didn't-"

"Oh." Theo spoke softly.

Liam's heart dropped, knowing he'd said the wrong thing and scrambling to think of a way to fix it.

"Sorry to disappoint-"

"No!" Liam yelled. He winced as Theo flinched at the loud exclamation. "It wasn't- I mean-"

"Liam, it's fine. You don't have to feel bad about it." Theo sighed, starting to get up from the bench and unfold his cane. "It's nothing I'm not used to-"

"Stop." Liam begged. He panted, his breaths felt labored as he panicked over losing his chance to get to know the intriguing man with the soulful voice better. Theo, obviously able to hear his distressed breathing, sat down once more, reaching out to touch his shoulder with an accuracy that he wasn't expecting, and it made Liam feel awful all over again about how terrible he is at this. "I just don't know what to do. I still want…  _ Nothing _ I knew about you has changed. I still know that you have a beautiful voice and an amazing laugh and killer taste in music. And you're a normal person like everyone else, I get that, I do. I just suck at not worrying about shit I guess. Ugh, I still desperately want to get to know the person in front of me. I just… I need your help. I'm scared. I'm intimidated. I'm worried that I'm going to annoy you by being painfully awkward. But I'm absolutely not at all  _ any _ less interested. Though you probably are now that you know I'm a complete  _ freak _ ."

Theo doesn't move, and he doesn't speak for so long that Liam started to believe that the much more muscular man was going to beat him up.

"Thanks." Theo said finally, a minute later. He took his hand off Liam's shoulder and slipped his sunglasses off for the first time since Liam had seen the man. Liam felt his breath catch as he noticed, while the man doesn't make eye contact with him or focus on anything in particular, his eyes are a bright, beautiful hazy ocean blue and seem like they're stating only at Liam. "I think that's, weirdly enough, the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me."

"What." Liam exhaled, eyes going wide as the other man's crinkled around the corners in amusement.

"I like that you were honest about it, even if you kind of made yourself look like a complete mess while you did it."

Liam shook his head in disbelief.

"Wait, you're not gonna like… run away?" Liam choked out. "You're actually… like-"

"Not gonna lie. That would be easier." Theo grimaced, head tilted down as he scratched at the back of his messy, wind tousled hair. "On both of us."

Liam's heart dropped and he began to nod to himself, but Theo put his hand out, interrupting the internal rant of self disappointment and loathing.

"If you take my hand can walk with you. As long as you're not a speed walker, I can tell if I'm about to walk into something." Theo smirked, raising his head again to face Liam. "I've been blind for almost a decade. I'm pretty good at this shit."

Liam froze and stared at the outstretched hand.

"Yeah, I'm still interested, Liam." Theo chuckled. Liam swallowed around the lump in his throat and took the man's calloused hand in his own. Theo squeezed gently, his smile widening. "I know I don't act like it, but I suppose I'm scared and intimidated too. And I think it's probably time I took a chance on getting to know someone despite those things. You seem kind of sweet and adorable, so maybe you can help me. We can help each other."

Liam smiled, standing from the bench along with theo and pulling Theo's hand into the crook of his arm, a motion he'd seen Scott do casually before many times in his life with his multimillionaire uncle, Deucalion.

"Alright, then." Liam breathed out, willing himself to relax as they walk along the sandy sidewalk. "So, you inadvertently slowed down the writing of my thesis by like… at least 50%. I think I deserve an explanation for how you got so incredibly amazing at guitar."

Theo laughed in surprise and pulled himself closer.

Liam's chest warmed at the sound and he _knew_ this was the start of possibly the best thing he's ever had.


End file.
